Context
This project focused on building an autonomous ground vehicle for IGVC-style navigation, where the robot needed to follow GPS waypoints, avoid obstacles, stay within course boundaries, and operate safely under competition constraints. The system was structured around modular autonomy development: ROS2 Humble and NAV2 handled planning and simulation, LiDAR and camera inputs supported obstacle detection, GPS provided waypoint navigation, and the Cube Orange, Arduino, telemetry, and motor-control hardware connected the software stack to the physical vehicle. My group was directly assigned the electronics and path/motion-planning aspects of the vehicle while other team focused on the physical integration and vision components.
What I contributed
I worked across the motion-planning, ROS2 integration, and electronics layers of the vehicle. My contributions included researching and prototyping the pathfinding approach, migrating autonomy work toward ROS2/NAV2, integrating LiDAR and GPS waypoint data, configuring communication between ROS2, the Cube Orange, Raspberry Pi, laptop, and Arduino, and supporting physical vehicle development through motor-control verification, drivetrain configuration, wireless communication setup, and custom omnidirectional wheel design.